This year, the government will choose five cyber universities and allocate 1.9 billion won to improve their educational environments. The funding will be used to equip these universities with facilities for creating content related to artificial intelligence (AI) and extended reality (XR).
On the 6th, the Ministry of Education and the Korea Educational and Research Information Service unveiled the basic plan for the '2025 Cyber University Digital Educational Environment Advancement Support Project.'
This project is part of the 'Artificial Intelligence and Digital (AID) 30+ Project' announced by the government last year. It aims to create leading cases in higher education by utilizing the characteristics of cyber universities that primarily focus on distance education.
The total budget for this year's project is 1.9 billion won. It plans to support each cyber university with 360 million won for a total of five institutions. The remaining 100 million won will be used for operational costs such as project management and consulting.
The funds allocated to cyber universities will be used for both hardware, such as studios, and software for immersive content production and learning support systems.
The government aims to ensure that the outcomes from this initiative can be shared and utilized by other universities.
Cyber universities interested in participating must submit a project proposal to the Korea Educational and Research Information Service. The final selection will be announced in May after a review by a committee of experts.
Choi Eun-hee, an official from the Ministry of Education's Talent Policy Office, said, 'I hope that the advancement of the digital and artificial intelligence (AI) educational environment in cyber universities will serve as a stepping stone for the advancement of online higher lifelong education".
